At what is now the end of our Major effort in re-sleepering between Maldon and Muckleford in 2024, we can proudly show off our hard work in this extremely exciting and informative table of stats! For convenience these stats start at Maldon and work towards Pipeline Crossing.
In the coming weeks, we’ll try to get a Video from Maldon to Pipeline Crossing up, to show off our good work!
| Location | Date | No. of Sleepers Installed |
| Curve 22 (Just of Maldon Yard) | May 2024 | 292 |
| Tangent 21-22 | June 2024 | 401 |
| Tangent 20-21 | May / June 2024 | 544 |
| Curve 20 | March 2024 | 667 |
| Curve 19 | March 2024 | 441 |
| Curve 18 | March / April 2024 | 481 |
| Curve 17 | April 2024 | 680 |
| Failed Timber Sleepers Near Winters Flat Bridge – As part of Re-railing | April 2024 | 9 |
| Total | 3,515 |
It’s been a massive effort, taking many hours, working in some slightly unfriendly weather. It has required some 14,000 biscuits and clips, all of which have been manually installed, which in itself has been an enormous effort!
A quick glance a our sleeper installation bar chart shows just how many additional sleepers we’ve installed this year compared to previous years – the year isn’t over yet either and we’re very hopeful of getting at least a further 1200 sleepers in before the end of 2024.
In the section Curve 20 to Pipeline Crossing, we were able to easily grade and assess the timber sleeper condition, however in the section we’ve just completed, this has been significantly harder, due to a mix of steel sleepers, quite a number of low profile concrete sleepers (which have been removed for re-use elsewhere) and a very high portion of timber sleepers that have come out in kit form. As such these figures aren’t available readily, however it is no exaggeration to state that this section had a notably worse sleeper condition – with only around 10 top grade sleepers recovered from all of the recent works – however the section was largely straight and as such was holding together much better than the curved areas.
The most common question is always: There can’t be many timber sleepers left out there now can there?
Unfortunately the answer is it’s still a very large number! It’s slightly easier to break it down into two sections, Maldon to Muckleford and Muckleford to Castlemaine – as the two sections are being re-sleepered in a notably different fashion.
Maldon to Muckleford:
Being re-sleepered using Full Depth Concrete Sleepers – which need to be installed in a 100% pattern (no mixing with timber)
| Total Distance: 7.6kms | Total Number of Sleepers: 9975 |
| Distance now 100% concrete: 3.07kms | Number of Concrete Sleepers Installed: 4030 |
| Distance still timber: 4.53kms | Number of Timber Sleepers Remaining: 5950 |
So we’re currently around 40% of the way through replacing timber sleepers in the Maldon – Muckleford Section.
Our plan is to complete the 800m of timber sleepers that still remains between the two main sections we’ve worked on during 2024 – this will take us up to about 51% completed. Our main focus for 2025 will then be finishing off the 49% of the track that will still be timber sleepered – hopefully meaning that by the end of 2025, we’ll be 100% concrete between Maldon and Muckleford – it’s at this point that we’ll be heavily chasing Ballast and Tamping of the track to bring it up to a high standard and and low maintenance section of track.
Muckleford to Castlemaine:
This section has been treated with low profile concrete sleepers – interspersed with timber sleepers at a minimum 1 in 3 pattern – however the remaining timber sleepers are now 20 years old and starting to show their age. There are still a few small sections that require the 1 in 3 treatment.
| Total Distance: 9.5kms | Total Number of Sleepers: 12470 |
| Distance that has min. 1 in 3 concrete: 8.29kms | Number of Concrete Sleepers Installed: 4500 (approx.) |
| Distance that still needs min. 1 in 3 concrete: 1.21kms | Number of Concrete Sleepers needed for this: 530 |
| Total Distance that still requires infill of failed timber sleepers: 9.5kms | Total Number of Sleepers still to replace: 7970 (approx.) |
So although we’ve been able to distribute the concrete sleepers in a much more useful fashion in the Castlemaine Section, we’ve still got a lot of replacements to go! As such the job is still a long way off being complete – the difference here being that the time factor to get this work complete is far less critical than in the Maldon section, as the 1 in 3 concrete sleepers already installed will extended the remaining life of the timber sleepers significantly (by 3-5 years)
Our plan is to spend 2025 focusing heavily on the Maldon section, as per above, however we’ll assume we may need to install 500 sleepers in this section to keep it in a the current condition that it is – in the sections that are yet to receive the 1 in 3 treatment.
Once the Maldon – Muckleford section is completed, we’ll be aiming at replacing the intermediate timber sleepers at a rate of around 3000 per year, until we can replace all timber sleepers – which we plan to have behind us by the end of 2027.
Unfortunately we’re still a long was off having sufficient funds available to purchase all the fastenings we require to use all of the Concrete Sleepers that we’ve been able to access through RTHV (Railway and Tramway Heritage Victoria) & VicTrack making these sleepers available to the Tourist and Heritage Sector within Victoria – without the hard work of this process, we’d be finding ourselves in a very dire situation given the rising prices of timber sleepers.
As always, we’re very proud of our efforts so far, but we’re still very aware of what lies in our future… it’s still a lot of work and money.
- We still need to secure around 3000 more concrete sleepers to fulfil our needs in the next few years – which still requires a significant transport cost – the VGR is currently hoping to make use of a ‘Loan’ arrangement to assist with this process, until such time as we can repay the loan – however if anyone is potentially able to assist in putting up some money as a loan – this will reduce the amount we need to try to find finance for and greatly help in reducing the shock loading to the VGR’s finances – please contact civil@vgr.com.au if you may be able to assist – as we can put you in direct contact with the correct people to discuss this.
- Rough estimates using current pricing places us at still needing to spend around $270,000 on hardware, to be able to use the 12,000ish concrete sleepers that still need to be installed (taking away what material we currently have in stock).
- Our little excavator is really showing its age after all this recent work – it has been just holding together, but when you realise we’re still quite a bit less than half way through the overall project – it is certainly not going to see us out for this whole project – it’s just untenable to suggest it would – given it’s age and enormous amount of work already completed. It’s replacement cost is going to come in at around $350,000 – fully fitted with hi-rail and ready for use – we’re getting to the point where if we don’t do something soon, we’ll be spending at least $100,000 to keep ours in going condition, assuming we don’t suffer a more major failure, and then it’ll just be a time game before the next bit wears out…..operating any plant, especially rail plant, is a very expensive game unfortunately! – we’ve looked into hiring or buying 2nd hand etc… but we’re going to come very close to spending the same money in less time than it’ll take to complete the project!
It would be great to have access to sufficient money to tick off this major task and get back to spending money on improving other areas of the Victorian Goldfields Railway, we’ll find a way, but if anyone has any good contact or connection with a large company that would like to sponsor the VGR Civil Branch – we’d be most receptive to offers!
In unrelated matters – we’ve still got 2 weeks of 5 day occupations left and we’ll be using that time to fix some rather bad sections of Maldon Yard – the areas that are often just too hard to easily maintain. Meeting at Maldon, every day, from 8am.
VGR Civil Blog 